Apple Music might be about to get a big price drop

By

AppleMusic
Apple could cut $2 off its regular monthly subscription cost.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Forget $9.99 per month — Apple might slash the price of Apple Music subscriptions to better compete with streaming music rivals, most notably Amazon.

According to a new report, Apple could drop monthly subscription prices by as much as 20 percent. The Apple Music price drop would mean a regular subscription would cost users around $7.99 per month, while a family package would go for $12.99.

Provided this news is accurate, the price cut could take effect as soon as Christmas, giving Apple the option of kicking off the new pricing with a holiday promotion of some sort.

Amazon recently launched its new Music Unlimited service. Amazon offers the same $9.99 monthly fee as Apple Music to regular users, but a reduced $7.99 monthly charge for monthly customers — and an insanely cheap $3.99 for owners of the Amazon Echo.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

In doing so, Amazon beat Apple to a lower price point that had reportedly been Apple’s goal from the beginning. One of the big rumors about Apple Music was that Cupertino wanted to charge users five bucks a month, based on the idea that the average iTunes user spends $60 per year on downloaded music, which translates to $5 every four weeks.

However, the plan got shot down by record execs. Apple settled on its $10 price point for Apple Music, which is on par with streaming pioneer Spotify.

Apple Music price drop?

So why would Apple now be able to offer music at a cheaper price, having failed to reach an agreement early on? Simply put, because Apple would be cutting its own profit margins in order to offer the $7.99 rate.

At present, it appears that any Apple Music price drop would require Apple to not just take in less money itself, but also to pay the difference from its agreed-upon price point to record labels Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.

Would the lower Apple Music subscription price have an impact on your decision about whether to use the service? Leave your comments below.

Source: Digital Music News

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.